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The National Memory 

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 

GEORGE EDGAR VINCENT 

BEFORE 

THE WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION 
OF NEW JERSEY 

With Greeting by HON. ALFRED ELMER MILLS 

And Remarks in Memory of the late 
President, Jonathan W. Roberts, by 

HON. WILLARDW. CUTLER 
and Proceedings in the Celebration 

AT WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS 

INMORRISTOWN, N,J. 

On February 22nd, 1913 



The National Memory 

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 

GEORGE EDGAR VINCENT 

BEFORE 

THE WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION 
OF NEW JERSEY 

With Greeting- by HON. ALFRED ELMER MILLS 

And Remarks in Memory of the late 
President, Jonathan W. Roberts, by 

HON. WILLARD W. CUTLER 
and Froceedin^^ in the Celebration 

AT WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS 

IN MORRISTOWN.'.N.J. 

On February 22nd, 1913 






D. of D. 
APR 6 191( 



WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY 



HEADQUARTERS; MORRISTOWN, NeW JeRSEY, 

February 22, 1913. 
Hod. Alfred Elmer Mills in the chair. 

Mr. Mills : 

We will open our exercises this afternoon by singing 
the first two stanzas of " America." Mr. Bennell will lead 
us. 

[Singing of "America."] 

Mr. Mills: 

My friends, a distinguished American patriot once 
said, " The deeper I drink of the cup of life, the sweeter it 
is — all the sugar is at the bottom." We all of us have in 
mind a man who, in his declining years, had that same 
hopeful attitude toward life. 

Before we proceed with the formal exercises of the 
day, I will call on Vice-President Cutler to say a few words 
about our honored and beloved president, the late Jonathan 
W. Roberts. [Applause.] 

Mr. Willard W. Cutler: 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : — 

We are assembled to celebrate the birthday of George 
Washington, under whose leadership the thirteen weak and 
struggling colonies were united into an independent gov- 
ernment, and only ten days ago the Country celebrated the 
birthday of Abraham Lincoln who prevented the dissolution 
of that Union. 

Both of these great men have passed from earth, and 
gone to their reward, and a grateful Nation recalls not their 
death, but their birth, not the loss the Nation has suffered 
but the great benefits it has received and still enjoys, as a 
result of what they did for their fellowmen. 

And so to-day while we miss the venerable and stately 
form, and the pleasant, cheerful greeting of our late honored 

3 



and beloved President, and keenly feel the great loss the 
Association has suffered, as well as our personal loss in his 
death, our sadness is alleviated when we remember all that 
he accomplished while the executive officer of this Associa- 
tion. But in order to realize the extent of his service, let 
me briefly refer to the history of the Association previous 
to his election as President. 

Twenty-one gentlemen, among whom were Theodore F. 
Kandolph, George A. Halsey, Francis S. Lathrop, William 
V. V. Lidgerwood, Augustus W. Cutler, William L. King, 
William Walter Phelps, and Cortlandt Parker, were on the 
twentieth day of May A. D. 1874, incorporated by an Act of 
the Legislature as the Washington Association of New 
Jersey. 

These incorporators not only gave their time and money 
to form this Association, so that the building in which 
Washington spent two winters during the War of the Revo- 
lution should be preserved for future generations, but they 
realized the Association needed at its head a man of culture 
and business abilty, one who could give his time and atten- 
tion to its necessities and eventually fill the Headquarters 
with rare and historical articles relating to revolutionary 
times. On June 29, 1887, they elected as President, Mr. 
Jonathan W. Koberts, who had already proved his fitness 
and ability for this position while serving for three years as 
a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Commit- 
tee, and so satisfactorily did he fill the position that he was 
unanimously continued as President until the time of his 
death 

Mr. Roberts never believed in doing anything in a half 
hearted way ; whatever was worth doing, was worth doing 
well, however much work it caused, and he carried out 
these views as President of this Association. 

At the time he accepted this responsible position, the 
only property owned by the Association was the Headquar- 
ters building, and the lot on which it stood and a very few 
historical relics to interest visitors ; the membership was 
only eighty nine, and they were carrying a debt of about 

4 



$15,000 the interest on wliicli sum Lad to be paid, as well 
as the running expenses of the Association. 

But Mr. Roberts' ability and energy soon made itself 
felt, and, with his hand guiding, the Association began to 
flourish as never before. The membership was increased 
to over five hundred, and to day we have, among our mem- 
bers, leading men in every business and profession, and I 
say it without fear of contradiction, that there was never 
gathered together in this State a more representative and 
influential body of men than I see before me. 

The property has been enlarged by the purchase of ad- 
joining lands. These beautiful Lafayette Rooms and the 
Cottage adjoining have been built and paid for ; the debt 
has been satisfied, and there is an invested capital of $25,000, 
which is bringing in an annual revenue, and in addition to 
all this the Headquarters now contains one of the most 
valuable and interesting collections of revolutionary relics 
to be found in any one place, and all this was accomplished 
by the energy, ability and persistent efi'ort of our late 
President. 

His work is finished and he has left behind him, not 
only warm personal friends who will always remember him 
as an honorable, Christian gentlemen, never refusing or 
neglecting to do what he considered right, and always ready 
and willing to assist and help his fellowmen, but he has so 
identified himself with this Association that it will stand as 
a monument to his memory more lasting than one of marble 
or bronze, teaching future generations that spirit of self- 
sacrifice and true patriotism which filled the heart and soul 
of Washington and Lincoln, and enabled Mr. Roberts to 
devote so much of his life for the benefit of others. Truly 
we can say of him, he made his life sublime, and departing, 
left behind him a monument that will endure through all 
time. [Applause.] 

Me. Mills : 

We will now sing the first and third stanzas of "Auld 
Lang Syne." 

5 



[Singing of " Aiild Lang Syne.''| 

Mil. Mills: 

Fellow members and friends of the Association : Ife 
becomes my agreeable duty to welcome you once more to 
the old Morristown home. I am glad to say your Associa- 
tion is in a flourishing condition^ but your Board of Trustees 
think that our membership can be strengthened -not in 
quality, that would be impossible, but in numbers. I am- 
requested to announce that we have two vacancies. If any 
of you know suitable persons, equal to yourselves, to till 
these vacancies, please send their names to our secretary, 
Mr. Henry C. Pitney, Jr., or to any member of the execu- 
tive committee. 

Talleyrand once said that nothing could be more pleas- 
ant than life, if one could experience it as a member of the 
old French aristocracy prior to the French revolution. 
Poor fellow, he was not an American nor a member of the 
Washington Association. There is a subtle influence that 
draws us back to this old town. Only the other day I 
heard of a remarkable instance of this irresistible, attractive 
force. A man had left this world for the celestial regions ; 
he was received with the utmost cordiality by St. Peter and 
a very polite angel was detailed to show him around. He 
enjoyed meeting the other angels, but was somewhat mysti- 
fied when he saw some persons chained to trees. " Why," 
said he, " what does this mean ? " " Oh," said the angel, 
" those persons came from Morristown, New Jersey, and we 
have to chain them up to prevent them from going back." 
[Laughter.] 

Since we were here, gentlemen, twelve months ago, we 
have passed through a political revolution and the country 
has been saved for four years more. Perhaps the country 
is safer than your income will be, if the proposed income 
tax legislation goes through. |Laughter.] 

Maybe you would like to know what income is. It is 
sometimes easier to define it, than it is to get it. Some- 
times both definition and possession come without trouble, 
as they did to a small boy whose teacher was introducing 

6 



liim to tlie elements of political economy. Tlie youngster 
"was asked to frame a sentence giving Ins idea of the mean- 
ing of income. " Why, certainly," said the boy, '' I opened 
the door and 'in come' the cat." [Laughter.] 

With most of us income is somewhat less active. There 
is only one thing for you to do, gentlemen, be philosophi- 
cal. After all, the attack on income is an old chestnut Be 
like a young friend of mine who burst out in uproarious 
laughter over a story which w^as of the chestnut variety. 
His brother exposulated and said " Why, John, why do 
you laugh at that ; it is as old as the hills." " I don't care 
if it is," said Johnny, " it is real wit." Why, last night, 
when I thought of that story I kicked all the slats out of 
the bed. [Laughter.] If you can't laugh at the attack that 
is being made on your pocketbooks, I would ask you to re ■ 
member that General Washington once swore. But — don't 
do it. 

During the many years that we have had our annual 
gatherings we have listened to brilliant speakers from 
North, East, South and West — great clergymen, great law- 
yers, great educators, great statesmen. 

We have learned to respect views widely different from 
our own. 

In this, as in all countries the two great forces of con- 
servation and radicalism, the one centripetal, the other cen- 
tiifugal, are constantly striving for the mastery. 

Either in supreme control would destroy all progress. 
Both are held in cbeck by the educated intelligence of our 
people. Without our schools, colleges and universities, the 
future of this country would be very dark. With them we 
are safe. 

We have with us to-day the president of one of the 
greatest and largest of our American universities, who is to 
give us an address on " The National Memory." I take 
very great pleasure in introducing the president of the 
University of Minnesota, Dr. George E. Vincent. [Ap- 
plause.] 

7 



4* 



THE NATIONAL MEMORY/' 



(Abstract of an address by George Edgar Vincent before the 
Washington Association of New Jersey, at Morristown, 
N. J., February 22, 1913.) 

Gj-ntlemen : — 

The introduction by the chairman leaves me in doubt 
about the part which I ara to play on this occasion. I am 
uncertain wliether he expects me as a radical to stir you 
from a conservative lethargy, or as a reactionary to be swept 
away by your irresistable passion for progress. Without 
attempting to settle the question let me assume that we 
shall p:eserve some sort of mental equilibrium. 

We meet to celebrate a great life ; to give vitality if 
may be to a hero, to grasp his meaning for our country. 
The task may well give us pause. Our thoughts run into 
conventional molds, our speech into well-worn traditional 
phrases. For memory merges into habit, and anniversaries 
take on a ritual of routine. Nevertheless to revive the past, 
to make it for the moment vivid, to turn old memories into 
new purposes — such is at once the baffling duty and the 
high privilege of this hour. 

Men give meaning to life by likening one thing to an- 
other. Thought and language record the myths and meta- 
phors by which men have tried to explain and to enrich 
their experience. Human speech is full of fossil poetry. 
The simile-making habits of mankind have dealt with so- 
cieties and nations. Polybius asserted that a whole people 
passes from youth, through manhood, to old age and death. 
Hobbes saw in society a huge creature made up of a multi- 
tude of men. Spencer traced in minute detail the analogy 
between an animal body and the social organism. Wash- 



ington has given us a meclianical figure. "A Federal gov- 
ernment," he said, " is the main-spring which keeps the 
clock of the States going." Of late philosophers have 
pushed the likeness into the psychic field. Such phrases as 
" the public mind," " the popular will," suggest a parallel 
between society and personality. Thus a nation becomes a 
vast on-going common life with habits, memories, character 
and purpose. 

The Nation looked at in this way has a tradition, a his- 
tory which may be likened to the memory of an individual. 
Nor is the parallel wholly fanciful. Today throughout our 
land we are refreshing the national memory. We fix our 
gaze upon the past. The Revolutionary panorama domi- 
nated by the figure of Washington passes through our 
minds. We turn again wish renewed courage to the future. 
Let us for a little time seek suggestions from this likeness 
between the National history and the personal memory. 

Without memory there can be no personality ; without 
history no nation. The loss of individual memory is a real 
destruction of the self. No event in personal life has mean- 
ing until it is explained by past experience. So it is with a 
nation. Only a knowledge of its history gives a clue to its 
character. The United States can have no real significance 
to a mind that knows nought of Washington, of Marshall, 
of Lincoln, and the things for which they stood. We can- 
not realize ourselves as a national group unless in imagina- 
tion we can picture the onward sweep of events, the pageant 
of the past, which has made us what we are. The child, 
because he lacks the background of experience, must be 
guided and if need be coerced from without. Washington 
by his grasp of the situation and by his indomitable will 
was able to force upon the colonies ideas and policies which 
there was no common history to suggest and foster. Wash- 
ington's letters to Congress and to the Colonial governors 
brought to bear a pressure which was sorely needed. When 
his fellows were thinking provincially Washington was 
planning for a national movement. They saw only a revolt 
against oppression ; he had a clear vision of a new people 

9 



occupying a vast territory. It was a part of the greatness 
of Washington that in time of need he coukl suppl}^ in some 
degree the lack of an historical tradition for an infant nation- 

A vague or fallacious memory weakens personality and 
impairs efficiency. In the same way if citizens have a frag- 
mentary and false picture of their country's history the 
nation will lack true unity and fail to respond wisely to new 
issuer. A whole people and its leaders may be ignorant of 
the past or misinterpret it and so lack stability and strength 
of national character. The misinterpretation of the past 
may lead to a dangerous self satisfaction and intolerable 
priggishness in an individual. So a nation by refusing to 
face frankly its mistakes may suffer from arrogance and fall 
into a fooi's paradise. It is well for us to remember^ that 
all the revolutionists were not self effacing and magnani- 
mous patriots. An English admirer of Washington has 
said that one of the most convincing proofs of his true 
greatness was his ability to endure his fellow Americans, 
It is important for us to know our heroes accurately. The 
many myths about Washington which assert his precocious 
and sublimated veracity, his coldness, his aristocratic dis- 
trust of popular government, his commonplace mental abil- 
ities, are persistent misinterpretations which affect the 
national memory and impair its social efficiency. 

Memory fosters pride, which is a condition of achieve- 
ment. The man who brings things to pass gains courage 
from the memory of his successes, just as he attains humil- 
ity by frank recollection of his failures. Sound national 
pride is a spur to effort and a means of progress. It is 
well to distinguish between vanity and pride. The former 
is mere anxiety to win admiration, the latter springs from 
obligation to be true to character, loyal to the past. Vain 
boasting is a different thing from self-reliant pride which 
stirs sentiment, releases power, and spurs to action. For 
all the stories about his clothes, Washington was not a vain 
man. He was not always seeking to conform to the expec- 
tations of tho^e about him. He did not pose before the 
looking-glasses in the minds of men and women. His 



streuoth of character came from within, from the memory 
of his past and the persistent image of his life's purpose. 

Memory selects and preserves vivid and vital experi- 
ences. It forgets the trivial and unimportant. So the na- 
tional history perpetuates essential things. Heroes in due 
time become types. Their virtues are exalted ; their weak- 
nesses ignored. Washington lives for the nation in those 
noble qualities which meant so much for our existence as a 
people. Historical scholars most properly investigate min- 
utely and reproduce for us in every available detail the true 
Washington, the human Washington and the like. But for 
the nation Washington has inevitably taken on an heroic 
character. We remember not his directions to his tailor, 
not his choleric outbursts, not his thrifty interest in his 
western lands, but we recall his unswerving loyalty, his 
uncomplaining sacrifice of personal preference, his military 
leadership, his statesman's grasp of affairs, his indomitable 
will, his prophetic vision of weak and mutually distrustful 
colonies united in a nlighty nation. 

Memory is preserved and deepened b}' symbols, by 
repetitions, by conscious thought. A nation that would 
perpetuate its history must be ever vigilant and resourceful. 
Flags, pictures, monuments, play a vital part. Anniversaries, 
memorial days, festivals, historic pageants, vivify the na- 
tional memory. These celebrations must not be permitted 
to become mere unconscious routine. They must not de- 
generate into mere holidays for pleasure and recreation. 
Just as the individual cannot safely allow his memory to 
grow dim, to lose its power over his imagination, its influ- 
ence upon his character, so the nation cannot with impunity 
neglect the means for keeping the sense of the past vivid in 
the minds of all its citizens. You are to be congratulated 
upon your association whicli aims at precisely this service 
of keeping alive a memory of the great leader and his times. 
You deserve well of the couutry. 

Memory cannot serve the future until imagination has 
translated the past into new ideals and purposes. Historical 
conditions never repeat themselves. Every new situation 



is in some sense unique. Old heroism has to be translated 
into new courage. The valor of war must be turned into 
the virtues of peace. War is dramatic. It rushes on to 
climax and decision. It has moments of great achievement. 
It culminates in victory or defeat. The new civic heroism 
works under other conditions. These seem too often com- 
monplace. They make little appeal to the romantii; imagi- 
nation. There is doubtless some likeness between the 
battle of arms and the struggle for safer sanitary conditions, 
better housing, the protection of women and children, for 
public recreation, for political reform, for justice, tolerance 
and good will. It requires, however, a resourceful imagina- 
tion to hold this likeness steadily before the mind and to 
turn fancy into conduct. Yet the past must be pressed into 
the service of the present and the future. As we meet in 
honor of the man who made our common country possible, 
as our minds run back over his deeds and his character let 
us translate his courage into the new fortitude, his devotion 
into new forms of patriotic service. 

Memory is a deposit of countless details, a few of them 
salient and conspicuous, but most of them merged into 
general impressions and lost sight of as separate items. 
Thus the national memory exalts a few famous individuals, 
but at the same time it carries on a mass of personal influ- 
ences, potent thorgh anonymous. It is a noble service to 
contribute inspiring ideas and deeds which live in the na- 
tional memory. Few if any of us gathered here to-day can 
hope to have our names carried down by the general tradi- 
tion of the nation. Washington lives and will live as a great 
personality. Our influence must be merged in the vast 
ongoing common life. 

We deepen then to-day the national memory. We pass 
on through other minds into the minds of generations yet 
unborn the glorious panorama of the past. Let us highly 
resolve that the national memory shall be turned into 
present loyalty and future efficiency. As the figure of 
Washington stands forth once more in our minds let us 
recognize the oblieations which he has laid upon us. Let us 



pledge ourselves anew with due sense of gratitude and de- 
votion to be true to the national memory and to turn this 
into a noble national purpose. 

Mr. Mills: 

I hear many motions extending the thanks of the 
Association to Doctor Vincent for his powerful address. All 
in favor of these motions, please rise. [Entire audience 
arose.] I bid you farewell for another year. 



13 













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